Are women's bodies still beautiful after pregnancy ?
LONDON. July 17. KAZINFORM Many women are left with scars, stretch marks, and loose skin after giving birth. It's a reality that women themselves often try to hide and the media never wants to show. But one photographer is on a mission to redefine the idea of the beautiful woman's body.
One day early last year, Jade Beall - a new mother based in Tucson, Arizona - went into her studio with her five-week-old baby, stripped off, and took a series of photos.
It was a body she wasn't really familiar with. There were bumps and lumps that she had never had before her pregnancy. And she didn't much like what she saw.
But she decided to post the pictures on her photography blog - keen to share with others a side of motherhood that tends to be kept out of view.
The media is full of images of women's bodies. But not these kinds of bodies.
"So many people tell me, 'Oh, I've never seen a body like that,'" says Beall.
"I want people not to have to react as 'You're gross,' but instead 'Oh, that's a woman who is incredibly human, or that's a woman who has scars and lines with stories to tell.'
"My goal is to help these mothers feel worthy of being called beautiful."
Soon after, Beall posted a photo on Facebook of the softly dimpled stomach of a friend of hers, with her two young children nestling up to her lovingly.
It went viral. Emails started flooding in, and hundreds of women wrote in to say they too wanted pictures taken of their post-pregnancy bodies.
Beall has now photographed more than 70 mothers who will appear in an forthcoming book, A Beautiful Body, due out in January. She uses no make-up artists, and there's no touching up or airbrushing.
"When she sent me the first pictures via email after the shoot, I remember getting this cold, sweaty feeling," says Nicole Meade, one of the women who volunteered to be photographed.
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